Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Germany, in 1785 and 1786 respectively. The Brothers Grimm collected fairy tales, which until then had mostly been passed on orally, and captured them in writing for the first time as a collection. One of their most important sources was the storyteller Dorothea Viehmann. The first volume of their Children's and Household Tales was published just before Christmas 1812. Their fairy tales have appeared in many languages since and in a multitude of editions. In 2005 the Grimms' fairy tales were made part of UNESCO's Memory of the World Register for the preservation of cultural documents. Laura Filippucci was born in Milan, Italy. She is a children's book illustrator who studied illustration at the Istituto Europeo di Design in her hometown and the School of Visual Arts in New York. She was an UNICEF Award winner at the 25th Illustrators’ Exhibition at Bologna Children’s Book Fair. She lives in Milan with her husband, also an illustrator, and their three children.